Warzone player reveals how to reverse-engineer SBMM for “bot lobbies”

As Call of Duty: Warzone’s players continue to grapple with skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), some have discovered an unfair workaround to guarantee easy bot lobbies. 

From Infinity Ward to Treyarch and Raven Software, the developers Activision have enlisted for Call of Duty: Warzone have remained completely silent about their approach to SBMM. Instead, the game’s millions of players have had to come up with theories about the matchmaking algorithms themselves.

Warzone debuted in March 2020 and players have spent months arguing about the merits of SBMM and its enforcement. Some believe it’s necessary to protect newer or more casual players, others believe it unfairly punishes players for having good games. Most lie somewhere in between, simply hoping for some transparency and balance to the matchmaking system.

Recently, fans have discovered their own way to achieve some level of transparency by using the SBMM Warzone website — which allows you to view full kill-death-ratio (K/D) data for your entire lobby. Using that and some experimentation, YouTuber ‘Rara’ has discovered the method for reverse-boosting into bot lobbies and simultaneously exposed a streamer for using said method to get easy content.

While we won’t detail the specifics of this method, it’s relatively simple and easy to pull off, although it does require multiple accounts and multiple gaming setups. While it’s unclear how prevalent the issue is, it’s clear that numerous players have been taking advantage of it.

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“I debated doing this. I debated leaving it alone until it was fixed. But I feel like if I’m gonna use this, because I am and I’m gonna put a disclaimer every time I do, I want you guys to be able to use it. I really fought with the thought.” Ultimately, while Rara wasn’t sure if he should post the video explaining the method, he decided it was worth sharing so that Activision can address it and streamers can be held accountable.

One such streamer is YouTube’s ‘Hydro,’ who Rara relentlessly exposed and critiqued for abusing this method to ensure easier lobbies. Unsurprisingly, the relatively new content creator was not thrilled with the backlash.

In response to being called out, Hydro proceeded to draw a difference between his abuse of the game’s system “for content,” versus the cheating taking place in monied Warzone tournaments.

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While the developers have yet to address SBMM, fans are continuing to find ways to learn how it can be manipulated. With accusations flying left and right, either for content or tournaments, the game’s community is diving deeper into matchmaking discourse.

Additionally, it should be noted that we do not recommend that any players use this reverse-boosting method themselves. Developers have punished accounts for abusing similar methods in the past and users could find their accounts in jeopardy should they game the system.